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Neocons Press for Syrian Action

June 8, 2012

Led by the neocons, a growing chorus of Washington pols and pundits are clamoring for President Obama to “do something” militarily to remove the Assad regime from power in war-torn Syria. But the real-life options remain fraught with risk, says ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.

By Paul R. Pillar

International anguish over bloodletting in Syria has come close to the point at which urges to “do something” about the situation there (something more forceful, that is, than supporting Kofi Annan’s diplomacy) may outweigh any sober consideration of whether there is something useful to do.

Having political support to do something, or anything, forceful or risky in Syria does not mean that there is indeed something to be done that would have a good chance of either stemming the bloodshed or ushering in a more agreeable regime in Damascus. There still are no good options on Syria.

The same sorts of questions that could be asked months ago remain important and unanswered today. The fact that the Free Syrian Army is not really an army but an unorganized collection of local fighting groups poses a host of uncertainties about the consequences of facilitating the shipment of arms to those groups.

Additional questions concern the likely calculations and responses of the Assad regime and those most dependent on its continuation if they see no alternative but a fight to the death. Still more questions concern the nature of any successor to that regime.

As unsatisfying as it may sound, White House spokesman Jay Carney’s observation that “militarization of the situation in Syria at this point . . . would lead to greater chaos, greater carnage” is probably the best starting point for formulating policy toward that situation.

A recent urging, with a twist, for a substantial arming of Syrian oppositionists comes from Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute, the twist being that Pletka argues that such a move would not only be good policy but also “good politics for Obama the candidate.”

One is entitled to ask whether this is intended as some kind of setup, laying the groundwork for later accusations that a more forceful turn in Obama’s policies was only a desperation move in the midst of a reelection campaign.

Setting aside such suspicions, Pletka probably is correct that more forceful actions on Syria, by responding to the strengthening urges to do something, would be politically popular at least in the short term, before we saw additional chaos and carnage in Syria. But short-term political advantage would of course be an entirely unjustifiable reason to make such a move.

Pletka’s elaboration of her argument about political advantage reveals how weak the part of her contention is that injecting more arms into Syria would make strategic sense. She says the move ought to appeal to Obama as an “un-Bush” way of “allowing others to fight a war that America wishes won”, presumably a contrast with the Bush way of committing a large American force to fight a long and costly war, as in Iraq.

But the rest of her argument is a continuation of the same patterns of neoconservative thinking that led to Bush’s war. There is the same wishful thinking substituting for careful analysis about consequences, such as in talk about how shipments of arms “may finally give the edge to the opposition” and “coax more significant defections” from the regime’s forces.

There is the same assumption that the United States can stage-manage political change in the Middle East, as in references to how the administration “could work more closely with the Syrian political opposition to develop a blueprint for a transition.”

There is the same assumption that the direction of U.S.-fomented political change always will be monotonically in a direction consistent with American values, as in talk about “the prospect of a U.S.-assisted democratic transition” and about how an arms-injection scheme would somehow “ensure” that moderate forces would take the helm in Syria.

After seeing how false such assumptions turned out to be even with the commitment of large American army, it is a wonder to see them applied to the kind of “un-Bush” intervention being recommended.

Bloody situations such as Syria give rise to humanitarian impulses that tend to be contrasted with cold realpolitik. (Pletka gives a nod to this kind of thinking by asserting that Syria presents a “rare confluence of strategic and moral imperatives.”) We would do well to heed a recent statement about Syria by someone often seen (unfairly) as the dark prince of heartless realpolitik, Henry Kissinger:

“Military intervention, humanitarian or strategic, has two prerequisites: First, a consensus on governance after the overthrow of the status quo is critical. If the objective is confined to deposing a specific ruler, a new civil war could follow in the resulting vacuum, as armed groups contest the succession, and outside countries choose different sides.

“Second, the political objective must be explicit and achievable in a domestically sustainable time period. I doubt that the Syrian issue meets these tests.”

Particularly against the backdrop of some situations, such as Syria or Libya, that have arisen in the Middle East, some people divide policy analysts into those who are willing to do tough things to stand up to despicable, bloody-handed regimes and those who are not willing to do such things.

A more illuminating and accurate division is between those who carefully think through consequences before acting on urges and those who do not carefully think through the consequences. The nation’s interests, on Syria or on anything else, are better served by the careful-thinking approach.

Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, rose to be one of the agency’s top analysts. He is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University for security studies. (This article first appeared as a blog post at The National Interest’s Web site. Reprinted with author’s permission.)

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6 comments for “Neocons Press for Syrian Action”

The so-called â€œArab Springâ€ was promoted by the US State Department to prevent focus on Palestine. Thatâ€™s why the mass protests in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen have failed to bring changes the public want. Libya, once the most properous African country â€“ has been pushed back into Dark Ages. In Bahrain, the western powers have made sure that the public will doesnâ€™t succeed against Sheikhdomâ€™s pro-USrael regime.

Israeli deputy prime minister Moshe Yaalon is on record for saying that Assadâ€™s ouster would be good for Israel by creating â€œa fissure in the Tehran-Damascus-Hizbullah-Hamas axis of evilâ€œ.

Iranâ€™s Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khameini, has warned the western powers that a military action against Syria will put the Zionist entity on the receiving end. Khameini said that â€œIsrael is more vulnerable than everâ€œ.

â€œIn Gaza Palestinian resistance fighters are struggling to defend their people against the aggressive Zionist war machine. At the same time in neighboring Syria the Syrian Arab Army is struggling to protect its civilian population and institutions against armed groups, backed by the Zionist regime, the US and their allies,â€ Mohamed Omar, a Swedish writer.

â€œThe regime in Damascus has more support internally. Most of the western media reporting on Syria is basically western propaganda, which does everything to prevent focus on Palestine. The press has brought this campaign to turn Assad into Hitler of the month, but it has failed,â€ says James Paul of the Global Policy Forum, which tracks international politics at the UN.

The lying neocons convinced the great “American People” that the US would be welcomed with flowers when invading & destroying Iraq.

It shows the complete domination that neocons have on US Middle East Policy.

Danielle Pletka worked in Jerusalem is a super neocon & probably a Zionist Jew. She strongly promoted the invasion of Iraq & was a strong supporter of Iraqi opposition leader, Ahmed Chalabi.

These neocons caused over 2,000,000 people to be murdered ,crippled orphaned & made homeless & destroyed the “Cradle of Civilization” to be destroyed with Depleted Uranium & Cluster Bombs.

That these American traitors like Danielle Pletka, Wolfwitz , Kristol , Krouthammer et al (most of whom have dual citizenship with Israel ) instead of being in prison are free to pressure the their pro Israel agenda which is SO OBVIOUSLY against the best interests of the USA is a TOTAL shame on the American People.

Revo

June 8, 2012 at 8:06 pm

Poor Obama has done everything–short of deeding America to Israel–to please Israel. But with all this Obama’s dedication to Israel, Israel supports the fanatic, reaceionary, aristocrat, Romney.

incontinent reader

June 9, 2012 at 12:26 am

Kissinger may now be rethinking his position on Syria, but some months ago I recall him saying rather emphatically and without qualification in an interview that Assad would have to go. Maybe it has since dawned on him that a US NATO special ops operation aided by private contractors, thugs from Jordan and Turkey, and Gulf terrorists that had completed their last carnage job in Libya, will not now succeed without huge bloodletting and a regional war, even with the hit squads coordinated by Ambassador Ford, similar to those in Iraq he was responsible for under John Negroponte. Early on, the word was that the Turkish government was going through internal debate over this operation even though it has since made the decision to take what it can. (And, perhaps the pipeline routes through Syria are part of the prize for NATO and Israel, too.) Up to now Hezbollah has been quiet, and maybe they also are part of the target. But with Lebanon now drawn in, there could be a real conflagration if Hezbollah enters the fray.

The level of media manipulation (e.g. by Christiane Amanpour), the vituperation and threats from Clinton, Rice, et al, and the terrorism the US, NATO and the Saudis have funded, supplied and coordinated through the NATO airbase at Incirlik, Turkey to coerce a sovereign, independent nonsectarian nation formerly at peace to dismantle itself is an egregious war crime. Unfortunately, the U.S. has hijacked the process at the UN whereby Syria can defend itself in that forum. Meanwhile, reports from some minority communities are confirming that the Free Syrian Army rebels has been creating much destruction in their areas and independent journalists and some former intelligence persons, are pointing to the rebels as responsible for the horrendous massacres.

This is just one more reason to dump the Obama crowd, and make sure Hillary does not reappear, vampirelike, in 2016.

incontinent reader

June 9, 2012 at 4:14 pm

At this point it appears that the ones who have successfully gamed and triangulated the system are the neocons, AIPAC and the Likud, and thaat the cost of their misadventures in blood and treasure will continue to be borne by the peoples of the Middle East and Central Asia and our own.

Kenny Fowler

June 9, 2012 at 5:54 pm

Is anybody surprised? The neocons aren’t getting their war with Iran so war in Syria will have to do for now.